Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 27: As per decisions taken in a recent meeting with Chief Executive Officer and other concerned officers, which was chaired by N.N. Vohra, Governor and Chairman of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, time bound steps were taken to enhance telecom facilities for the pilgrims during 2014.
All related aspects of telecom facilities were discussed in a recent meeting held at New Delhi under the chairmanship of Joint Secretary (Kashmir), Ministry of Home Affairs.
Giving further details, Navin K. Choudhary, Chief Executive Officer of the Shrine Board, informed that all pilgrims will get Temporary Pre-paid SIM cards this year, which will be operative for a period of seven days as compared to four days during Yatra 2013. This Pre-paid SIM card facility is extremely valuable for those Yatris who do not possess a BSNL mobile facility.
The CEO further informed that the BSNL would issue these Pre-paid SIM cards to only the Registered Yatris at special counters which will be set up at the Nunwan and Baltal Base Camps. He informed that all Yatris interested in obtaining the Pre-paid SIM cards would be required to provide proof of identity, proof of permanent address and their valid registration papers at the special counters.
The CEO has further informed that consequent to the Chairman, N.N. Vohra, taking up the matter of enhancement of telecom facilities in the Yatra area with the Central authorities, the Department of Telecomm-unication has agreed to consider allotment of separate funds for creating permanent infrastructure for providing telecom facilities for the future Yatras.
Department of Telecommunication has also advised other service providers like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc to pool their resources and explore the feasibility of erecting telecom towers in the Yatra area for the benefit of pilgrims.
Chairman has asked the CEO, Navin K. Choudhary, to vigorously follow-up on all these decisions in the interest of smooth conduct of Yatra and for the enhanced convenience of the pilgrims.
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